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Craft CMS vs Mezzanine

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted content management systems options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
CR Craft CMS Flexible CMS for custom-designed websites VS ME Mezzanine Lightweight content management framework for Django
FeatureCraft CMSMezzanine
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score88 · Excellent66 · Good
CategoryContent Management SystemsContent Management Systems
LicenseMITBSD-2-Clause
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 3,608★ 4,816
First released20132010
ReplacesWordPress, SitecoreWordPress

What are Craft CMS and Mezzanine?

Craft CMS

Craft CMS is a content management system focused on giving developers and designers complete control over content structure and markup. The core product is open source with optional commercial editions.

  • Flexible content modeling
  • Twig templating
  • GraphQL API
  • Plugin store

Read the full Craft CMS guide →

Mezzanine

Mezzanine is an open-source content management platform built on Django that provides a simple yet flexible CMS out of the box. It includes a blog engine, in-line editing, and rich content tools.

  • Built-in blog engine
  • In-line content editing
  • Hierarchical page tree
  • Django integration

Read the full Mezzanine guide →

Craft CMS vs Mezzanine: key differences

Craft CMS is written in PHP, while Mezzanine is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Craft CMS versus BSD-2-Clause for Mezzanine. Mezzanine is the more established project (first released 2010), while Craft CMS arrived in 2013.

Why pick each one

Choose Craft CMS if…

  • Excellent for bespoke sites
  • Clean control panel

Watch out for

  • Pro edition is paid
  • Not ideal for non-developers
Craft CMS details

Choose Mezzanine if…

  • Quick to get a Django site running
  • Includes blogging out of the box

Watch out for

  • Development has slowed
  • Smaller community now
Mezzanine details

Frequently asked questions

Is Craft CMS or Mezzanine better?

Neither is universally better. Mezzanine has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Craft CMS and Mezzanine free and open-source?

Yes. Craft CMS is licensed under MIT and Mezzanine under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Craft CMS and Mezzanine with Docker?

Craft CMS: yes. Mezzanine: yes.

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